For the consumer and professional, there has been a variety of products available throughout the years for the recoloring of footwear. Aerosol, lacquer-type sprays, and brush-on recolor water-based type finishes have been on the market for a considerable time. These products have had inherent deficiencies. The fast-dry lacquer-type aerosols, or sprays, mostly become hard after they are applied, because the nature of the coating is a solvent-type lacquer, which has been manufactured by dissolving a resin into a solvent. The resulting coating, then, has the properties of the resin-solvent blend. If the resulting coating would be too hard, plasticizer is often added as an external agent to soften the resulting coating. What then happens is that the plasticizer migrates out of the coating, making it hard and brittle. Or, while in the coating, the plasticizer may render the surface tacky. That is the nature of plasticizers. Lacquer-type coatings, whether nitrocellulose, vinyl, or acrylic, do not have the requisite inherent flexibility. Therefore, coatings conventionally are mixtures of chemicals. The resulting coating can exhibit different qualities as it ages. There often is a considerable loss of flexibility, wear, abrasion resistance, etc. As a result, known recolor finishes for shoes, whether they be solvent blends or water-based blends, exhibit qualities of serious aging and deterioration because of the nature of how the coating was manufactured. Thus, a shoe recoloring product loses its washability, durability, and flexibility, because the mixed chemicals do not stay in the condition they were, at the time of mixing.
Almost all new sneakers soon get dirty, and show signs of wear and tear after they are used in sports activities. The same is true for most shoes and footwear. It is not uncommon for sneakers and shoes to show considerable signs of use and wear shortly after being purchased.
One popular product on the market now is a water-based color coating for ladies shoes. It has very poor water resistance and does not wear well. It is a color coating which is a mixed-together product. Professionals also have available a lacquer-type aerosol which colors shoes and leather, but exhibits the same poor tendencies of all mixed coatings and finishes.
There are similar problems in protecting luggage and other leather and leather-like goods that, like footwear, are subject to scuffing, flexing and changes in humidity, since the finishes available to recolor and protect them are generally the same as those available for recoloring and protecting the outer surfaces of leather and leather-like portions of footwear.